Joint Countermobility Capabilities in the Department of Defense

Today’s military leadership is faced with the changing culture of a financially constrained environment. The Department of Defense has noted a shortcoming in countermobility capability and emphasized a shift from COIN to small scale wars in a variety of environments and has also emphasized the use of interorganizational capabilities. This thesis examines if US land forces (US Army and US Marines) are properly trained, equipped, and manned to support countermobility operations. Both the US Army and the US Marines have fundamentally similar doctrine and training for countermobility operations. Historical studies of conflicts in the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam are used to show how countermobility operations can be applied to today’s capabilities. Reductions in manning will have potential impacts to countermobility. Although challenged, both the US Army and the US Marine Corps are able to conduct countermobility operations without conventional mines on a variety of battlefields.